THE QUESTION OF REFORM.
It has been seen that the Marquis of Blandford moved resolutions pledging the house forthwith to employ themselves in the work of reform, as an amendment to the address. On the 18th of February he brought forward a more specific plan. The house of commons, he argued, had ceased to be framed as the essential principles and earlier practice of the constitution required; a circumstance which had arisen from represented places falling into decay, on the one hand, while, on the other, wealthy and populous towns, which had sprung up in the meantime, were unrepresented. His object was, he said, to restore the principles of representation as they had been established in the days of Henry III. and the three Edwards. For this purpose he proposed that a committee should be chosen by ballot, to take a review of all boroughs and cities in the kingdom, and report to the secretary of the home department those among them which had fallen into decay, or had in any manner forfeited their right to representation on the principles of the English constitution, as anciently recognized by national and parliamentary usage. The home-secretary was bound to act immediately on this report, and to relieve all such places from the burthen of sending members to parliament in future, while he filled up the vacancies by towns which had been hitherto unrepresented. Another part of his plan was to revive the custom of paying wages to members for their attendance in parliament; a provision which he thought would prevent abuses. He also proposed to extend the right of voting to all copyholders and leaseholders, and to place the representation of Scotland on the same footing with that of England. He concluded, by moving, to bring in a bill to restore the constitutional influence of the house of commons. This motion was supported by Sir Francis Burdett, and by Messrs. Pendarvis, Benett, and Hobhouse, with others of the school of reformers. Sir Francis Burdett said, that he could not comprehend all the details of the propositions; but he understood it to be a question of reform, and, therefore, he would support it. He admitted that the house was composed of men of as enlightened understandings, and as addicted to the English principles of freedom, as could be found collected in any nation of the world; but he asserted that they were returned to the house under an influence which rendered them incapable of exerting the faculties of their minds, and injurious to the country. He remarked:—“Look at myself, I have gone through the whole process under the present system of representation, and a most ruinous one it has been. Early in life, I came into this house in order to defend the constitution of England; I purchased my seat of a borough-monger. He was no patron of mine; he took my money, and by purchase I obtained a right to speak in the most public place in England, With my views, and with my love of the liberty of my country, I did not grudge the sacrifice I made for that commanding consideration. If I had abused the right I had thus purchased, and passed through corruption to the honours of the peerage, I should not enjoy the satisfaction I now feel.” He had also tried, he said, the county system. He stood for a county, though he would not have given twopence for the representation of that county, his object having been to expose the abominable system, and the oppressive tyranny of solitary confinement in England. He had also gone through the remedial operation as it was called, of the Grenville act, so that, as he had sounded all the shoals and shallows of the system, it was not wonderful he should be a great advocate for an alteration. The question was this: ought the house to be an assembly of retainers of the crown, or of representatives of the people of England. The bill was opposed by Messrs. Feel, Twiss, Maberly, and Stanley. Mr. Twiss said, that a scheme had never been produced so happily calculated to ridicule parliamentary reform, although it was of course far from the intention of the noble lord by whom it had been introduced. Mr. Peel also amused the house with remarks on the title of the bill, and said that he would never be a party to a wholesale depreciation of the elective franchise, or assent even to the first stage of the bill, which devolved on a ballotted committee the power of destroying all boroughs which they might think ought not to send members. Lord Althorp moved as an amendment, “That it is the opinion of this house, that a reform in the representation of the people is necessary,” should be substituted for the motion, for leave to bring in a bill; but both the amendment and the original motion were negatived without a division.